Something is wrong
by MurtaghSpamanoGirl
Summary: So christmas is coming up, so to celebrate i post a new chapter of this story everyday until Christmas. Plot is: Some fantasyland called, Kulsia is attacked. The only one getting away are some teenagers from a couple of elfclans (wink wink the hetalians) enjoy
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: So this story is based on a quiz I did on quotev. Basically i'ts a story of six different elfspieces living in a land called Kulsia. But then some bad news arrive and the only one left are a couple of teenager from each set of elves. Sounds sucky but it's not, for these teenagers are usually known as the nations of Hetalia. The idea simply came from me being bored so I figured out where each person would belong. So, anyway, there's six different kind of elves. There's waterelves, slightly spoiled and snobbish. Forestalves, sort of hippie. Warriorelves, the warriors. Fieldelves, the farmers. Cliffelves, the outcasts. For mor info check the quiz at quiz/2412578/What-kind-of-elf-are-you/**

**Hetalia will apear in next chapter.**

"My Queen!" the messenger called betwen gasps as he stormed into the courtroom.

The three present in the room, all ladies, looked up in surprise at the sudden disturbance of the peace.

"Whatever is wrong?" Queen Arvenne asked warily and sat straight up in her chair.

Both younger girls looked on edge too.

"I just received a message from your husband."

A glimpse of worry crossed the queen's face and she exchanged a worried glance with her daughter, Eiliota.

"What message do you bring from my father?" the fragile teenager asked.

"Bad ones." The messenger admitted sadly.

Eiliota instantly took a firm hold on her friend's, Carina's, hand, ready to hear the worst. Her friend could only silently support her by gently squeezing her hand.

"Read this, my lady." The messenger said and passed a letter to the queen.

Arvenne accepted it and quickly scanned through it before she gasped.

"Oh, my."

Princess Liana quickly made her way through the forest, heading straight for her home where she was sure to find her mother. In her hand, was a letter, hastily marked "Queen Girla". Liana was scared to say the least, as she'd already been informed by king Artilius himself of the situation at hand, she could only pray that her mother could handle it. Eventually she reached her home, quickly searching for the Queen, only to find that their house was empty. She cursed under her breath.

"MUM!" she called out warily and she quickly grabbed a leftover bow and a couple of arrows from the storage before leaving the house again. "Mum!"

Still no answer, and Liana was beginning to grow impatient. Luckily, she spotted one of her younger siblings further down, playing with one of the other kids.

"MAXIM!" she called out, attracting both boys' attention.

"Hi, Liana." Maxim said happily, fully unaware of his sister's nervous state as he extended his arms for a hug.

"Where's mum?" Liana asked quickly, only giving so much attention to the younger as to ruffle his hair a little.

"She went to the river with dad." Maxim said in confusion. "Why?"

"Nothing, Max." Liana promised hastily. "Girl problems."

Both boys made a disgusted face and let Liana run off on her own to take care of "girl problems". Before she was gone, she called back to him:

"Go home and lock the doors, only let those you really trust in!"

Liana sprinted through the woods towards the river as quickly as she could, hoping her mother hadn't gone to any other place than their usual place. She released a sigh of relief when she spotted her mother ahead and called out to her. Queen Girla looked up with a slight frown, as she instantly recognized the nervous tone to her oldest daughter' voice.

"Liana, my dear. What's wrong."

"It's from the king." Liana said, handing her mother the letter as she tried to breath normally.

Girla's frown deepened as she read the letter before her hand came to her mouth in shock.

"Oh no, it can't be."

"Hey, has anyone seen Sir Robert?" Skunk asked around as he searched the square for his mentor.

"Nope." Came the muffled reply.

Skunk let out a whining sound and kicked at the dirty ground.

"Dammit, why is it always me?"

"I saw him." A teenage girl informed. "He was heading for the border with Richard."

"Thanks." Skunk said with a new burst of energy.

He quickly, or as quickly as he good, made his way towards the border. The border in question was the one towards the land of the trolls but no one ever said that, cause it was quiet obvious, since that's the only border they ever had to worry about. Sure enough, he found his mentor (the king) and one of the elders near the border, looking to be in a deep discussion. He would have let them be in normal cases since Sir Robert could be sort of a bitch when he was disturbed, but for once he knew that he had something important. He didn't know what, as he hadn't read the letter yet, but he knew that it was important.

"Sir Robert." He called out, earning an annoyed groan from the older.

"Can't you see I'm in a rather…"

Sir Robert cut himself off when he spotted the letter in Skunk's hand as well as the royal sign.

"What business does the king have with me?" he asked warily and accepted the letter that Skunk was now handing him.

Sir Richard frowned and read the letter over the younger's shoulder. As the two read, Sir Robert's face shifted color into a deep red (and he was not blushing) and he crumbled the piece of paper in his hand furiously.

"No." he hissed. "Not on my watch."

Feldon looked rather questioningly at his nephew as the other was leaning against the war.

"Aren't you happy to see me, uncle?" the younger asked mockingly. "The black sheep has returned."

"Not nearly as glad as your mother must be, I'm sure." Feldon answered calmly.

"I haven't visited her yet." The young boy admitted as he dug his hands into the pockets of his black cloak.

"You should, she is your mother." Feldon reminded. "I'm sure your sisters and your father will be quite excited to see you too."

"And so they shall." Tiny said. "But not yet."

"So what is bringing you here then, if not to visit your family." Feldon asked, looking for any sign of feelings on the young man's face.

And he found them. Worry. Sadness. Fear.

"I bring bad news, uncle." The teenager said sadly and retreated a letter from his pocket. "It's from King Artilius."

Feldon furrowed his brows and accepted the letter. He carefully opened it and read it through before his face matched the one of his nephew. Worry. Sadness. Fear.

"Oh no."

Leo just barely got the chance to get out of the way as the large dinosaur-looking bird landed on the court-yard. Two figures easily jumped off the creature, one man and one woman. The man placed a hand on the bird's big beak and looked it in the eye.

"Stay." He ordered.

The bird folded in wings, signifying that it would do as told unless it was being threatened or it saw the need to move. The black-haired man patted her proudly.

"Good girl."

He hurriedly left the creature be and went to greet his brother, who had already greeted Kimberly, the second one to arrive.

"I'm glad to see you at health, little brother." Leo said and embraced the shorter.

"I am glad to see you at health too, brother." Milo answered before looking warily at the other. "What is wrong?"

"How can you know that something is wrong, Milo?" Leo asked.

"I can feel it in the ground, something is coming." Milo answered. "And you and father knows what it is."

"Something tells me you know too." Kimberly said with a sigh to her husband.

"All the signs point towards it." Milo sighed in aggravation. "Neither mother, nor Eiliota are answering my letters. You're sisters aren't answering. I haven't heard a word from king Feldon and the meeting with Sir Robert was unexplainably cancelled."

Milo turned back to his brother.

"Please, Leo, tell me it isn't true."

Leo released a deep sigh and shook his head.

"It's coming." He said sadly. "And it's coming at great speed. Too fast to stop it."

Milo released an angry yell as he kicked at the ground, catching the attention of people passing by.

"Dammit."

**A:N/ Soo, should I continue? Ah, who am I kidding, no one is reading this**


	2. December 1

So it's a bit late, but here's the first real chapter of my Christmas chalander. I'll be counting down until christmas

"Did not."  
"Did so."  
"Did not."  
"Did so."  
"Did not."  
"Did so."  
Francis rolled his eyes as the two cousins were arguing, flipping his blond hair over his shoulder to get it out of his face.  
"Are you two done?" he questioned, only recieving a dark glare from each boy. "This is getting ridiculous. We were supposed to take a look at the portal, not fight over who groped who."  
"But he..." Alfed, the younger of the cousins, started.  
"Did _not_." His cousin, Logan, argued.  
"Did _so_. You were right next to me."  
"And just because of that, I groped you?" Logan growled. "If that's the case then I suppose Heracles groped Francis!"  
"I didn't..."  
"I did it." Francis said with a aggregated sigh. "There, are you happy now?"  
"No, not particulary." Alfred said with a pout.  
Logan smirked and recieved another glare from Alfred.  
"Guys!" Eduards voice called from further inside the cave. "I've found it."  
This easily caught the attention of the teenagers and all forgot the former argument, much to Francis' relief. They found Eduard crouching next a big portal, covered in jewels of all kind.  
"Oh my." Marie, who'd so far stayed quiet during the unnecesarry argument (she already knew it was Francis), gasped in awe. "To think our anscestors built this."  
"Quiet exstraordanary, don't you think?" Eduard commented with a pleased semi-smile.  
"Some of these jewelries doesn't even exist anymore." Shamus said, as he let the lantern wander across the portal.  
"Is it true then?" Alfred asked. "That this can take you to an other world?"  
"That's what I'm trying to figure out." Eduard answered thoughtfully. "According to chronicles from the early down of our people, Ulidari created this portal if the waterelves would have to flee their home. Only, they turned out not to need it, as the mermaids where happy to aid shoudl the shield fall."  
"Awesome." Logan and Alfred gasped in unision.  
"We should get Yong and Mei-Mei." Heracles commented. "They cannot miss this."  
"Not all three." Eduard reminded. "We still need someone to stand guard. If the Queen finds that I've been going here without permission..."  
"We never got permission?" Shamus hissed.  
"The queen said it was too dangerous." Eduard admitted. "But I couldn't just let it pass. I've checked the cave, it's secure."  
"How can you..." Marie started, but she was cut off when they all heard a loud rumble and the ground began to shake.  
Caught off guard, Marie stumbled backwards, just barely being caught by Francis. The portal began to shake as well and pieces were falling off. "Watch out." Alfred called out and grabbed Eduard's arm, pulling him out of the way so he wasn't crushed. Eventually, the shaking stopped and the group released a sigh of relief.  
"What the hell was that?" Shamus gasped. "An earthquake?"  
"No." Alfred said darkly. "That was much worse."

"Okay, that's it!" Elizaveta yelled. "We've been lost in this god damn swamp for three days. Sadiq, just give me the map!"  
"No!" Sadiq said, yanking the map out of Elizaveta's reach.  
"Big brother." Theresa, Sadiq's sister, whined. "We're walking in circles. This swamp is practically impossible to get out of unless your experienced."  
"And what's worse, my magic doesn't even work in here." Lukas added with an annoyed sigh.  
"Please, just give Elizaveta the map." Lilly, the last of the group pleaded. "She'll find a way out."  
"God dammit." Sadiq groaned. "I am the man of this group and I that means I'm in charge."  
"Hey!" Lukas said and glared darkly at Sadiq.  
Sadiq only ignored it as he kept walking, long since getting used to the wet ground underneath his feet. He suddenly froze as he heard a soft sniffle. He turned around to find his little sister had stopped and was now crying softly. With an aggravated sigh he passed the map to Elizaveta and walked, or more like wadded, over to his sister.  
"Hey, Tessie, what's wrong?" he asked softly.  
"I-I-I'm just... s-so wor-r-ried." she sniffled. "What if something h-happened to the o-others."  
Sadiq hugged his babysister tightly.  
"Don't worry, kiddo." he said affectionately. "Those are one of the strongest people I've ever meat. They're probably already back home, telling queen Girla to send people looking for us."  
Theresa sniffled again.  
"Won't you smile for your big brother?"  
Theresa dried her tears and managed a weak smile.  
"That's my girl." Sadiq said with a soft smile before he turned to Elizaveta. "Now, are you gonna get us out of this damn swamp, or not?"  
"I would have done it earlier but you just had to be an idiot all the time." Elizaveta snapped.  
"Lizzy." Lilly said pleadingly.  
"Sorry Lilly." Lizzy apologized as she scanned the map. "Now, the first thing we need is to find a landmark. If only there was a better..."  
"What the hell is that!?" Sadiq cut her off and pointed up the the sky.  
All five looked up and gasped as they saw a dark cloud roll in over their heads.  
"Something is seriously wrong." Lukas whispered.

Hyon watched with an amused smile as the two battled. One, a short blond boy named Tino, with a spear. The other, a tall muscular blond named Mathias, with a massive battle-axe. It was a lost cause really, as all of the watching teens knew the outcome of the fight.  
"Why does he even bother?" Hyon's friend, Esteban asked annoyance.  
"Say, why don't you just stop them, Hyon?" Juan, a slightly younger elf, asked. "You're like the only one who can match his strenght.  
Hyon only shook his head.  
"Nah, let them have their fun?" he said calmly.  
"Ludwig is gonna have a hissy-fit though." Juan commented.  
"Speaking of which." Gilbert spoke up. "When are you gonna tell Ludwig that Sir Robert didn't actually give us promition to go fight the Orchs at the border?"  
"Never." Juan said with a shrug. "We were born to fight, so why shouldn't we?"  
"I agree." Xion said as he pushed himself off the tree he was leaning against. "So, Gil, you wanna bet on who's winning?"  
"Are you serious?" Gilbert asked with a snicker. "The odds are way too uneven for it to get interesting."  
"Oh come on." Xion pushed. "Come on, I bet you that Mathias will be pinned to the ground in exactly five minutes."  
Gilbert let out a mocking laugh.  
"Are you trying to lose?" he snickered. "I beg to deferre, and in less then a minute I'll be carrying around _your _money."  
Xion nodded in confirmation before the two returned to watching the fight. Sure enough, with one last dash forward, the battle was over, and the natural winner had won. Mathias stared right into Tino's eyes with a slight smirk on his lips.  
"Done?" he asked.  
"Are you." Tino simply replied with a cocked eyebrow.  
"I believe so, yes." Mathias said with a grin. "We cool?"  
"Course." Tino said with a nod.  
Mathias nodded too as a silent agreement formed between them. And then finally, Tino stood off Mathias and offered him a hand.  
"You did good today, Mathias." he said with a happy smile. "I really think your skills are improving."  
"Thanks, Tino."  
Tino then moved to the other three where Juan was grudgingly handing his money to Gilbert.  
"And you Xion?" he questioned. "Did you really think it'd take me another five minutes. That's just an insult."  
"Told you he'd do it within a minute." Gilbert smirked.  
Xion rolled his eyes.  
"You were just lucky." he muttered. "Now where is Ludwig and the others?"  
"Yeah." Mathias agreed. "It shouldn't take long to..."  
Mathias was cut of by a sudden shaking of the ground.  
"What was that?" Juan asked when the earth beneath his feet had stopped moving.  
"Probably just an earthquake." Mathias said, still sounding rather shaken.  
Gilbert turned to look at the horizon and down the road that would eventually lead them home, only to suddenly pale further.  
"Guys, please tell me I'm the only one seeing that."  
"Seeing what?" Tino asked with a slight frown.  
"That." Gilbert said and pointed towards the sky behind the others.  
All turned and could now clearly see the black smoke that was rising to the sky, right above their village.

"Gagh, Ivan!" Yao cried out in frustration as he tried to push the larger elf off him.  
"Aw, but Yao-Yao." Ivan whined. "I want to hug you."  
"Ivan, I don't even think we're in the right place." Yao complained in annoyance, as he checked the map again. "I don't even know if this map is even of Kulsia."  
Yao was distracted by a sudden squeal and looked around to see Bella jump up and down in delight with Feliciano. He rolled his eyes at the obvious display of "fangirling" even though technically it couldn't be dubbed fangirling since Felicano was a man.  
"Would you two try to take this seriously?" Roderich spoke up, sounding even more annoyed than Yao had a few seconds ago. "I don't even see why I had to come to this stupid suicide-mission."  
"Aw, don't be uptight." Antonio scolded halfheartedly. "It's good for you to get out of the house, or you'll never be strong enough to help out with the harvest."  
"I never asked to help out." Roderich snapped.  
"Oh, maybe that's why everyone dislikes you." Raivis said thoughtfully.  
Raivis' brother Toris gasped in shock and the youngest of the group suddenly realized what he'd said.  
"I-I-I'm s-s-sorry s-s-s-sir." he stuttered, fearing that the "uptight" man wouldn't hurt him for his rude comment.  
Roderich only huffed in distaste and ignored the younger.  
"So what are we up here, looking for anyway?" he asked.  
"We're looking for a very rare plant, aru." Yao explained. "One that can help out a great deal as medicine."  
"We are not sick."  
"No, but many people travel to Selton because we are the most skilled in medicine." Yao reminded calmly, temporarily forgetting about the large blond that was still latching on to him.  
"Yes, but what does that have to do with me?"  
"It's quite simple really." Yao said. "Toris is here because he's the most skilled one of us in medicine, Ivan is here because he can protect us, Bella is here because she's the number one tracker in Selton, Raivis is here because Toris couldn't leave him behind, Toni and Feli are here because they wanted an adventure, I'm here because I'm the only one who knows what to look for, and _you _are here because you are too "uptight" as Antonio put it, and need to get out and get a life... aru."  
Antonio snickered at the typical "aru" at the end, receiving a dark glare from Yao.  
"And now..." Yao started. "What in heavens name is that?"  
Everyone's eyes followed Yao's and saw a vast, dark, cloud moving towards them, leaving everything behind in a complete darkness, spare for an odd area in the forest.  
"Everyone, back away." Antonio said hastily, feeling the dark magic from the cloud.  
They all backed up until Raivis colided with the cliff behind them.  
"We're gonna die. We're gonna die. We're gonna die." he kept repeating to himself.  
"Calm down, Raivis." Yao demanded harshly. "I'm sure it's not as bad as it seems."  
"It's practically eating the bare earth." Roderich hissed.  
Yao's answer was replaced by a gasp when Ivan stepped forward towards the darknes that was now only a few feet away.  
"Da, you won't be hurting my friends."  
"Ivan, get back here, you'll be killed." Yao hissed in fear.  
"Niet." Ivan simply answered with a wide smile.  
Ivan took another step forward and to everyone's surprise, the darkness drew back, taking detour, thereby leaving the group fully unharmed.  
"I-Ivan..." Yao stuttered. "You just... it just... and then you... and then it..."  
Toris cut him off by pointing to the sky ahead.  
"Hey, guys, we've got more problems to worry about."

"We thank you for your hospitality." Arthur said calmly and shook the king's hand. "I hope this will mean that your soldiers will no longer attack our flyers."  
"Provided they don't harm my people." the king said with a chuckle.  
Arthur nodded in agreement, before turning around. His four companions looked expectantly at him, as if asking: "Can we go now?" Arthur gave them a small smile before he let out a loud whistle. Within minutes his flyer had landed calmly before him.  
"Hi there, Mint." he said tenderly, patting Mint's neck. "Where you a good girl while I was gone?"  
Mint "chirped" happily, earning another pat.  
"We are ready to leave." he informed. "Berwald, have you had any further contact with king Milo?"  
"No." Berwald answered simply.  
"Can we please just leave, all this was just a waste of my time." Eirikur complained as he sourly kicked the dirt on the ground.  
"You can say that twice." Lovino agreed with him. "Stupid bastard, why did you have to bring me to this stupid fuck?"  
"Because no one else will take you." Arthur snapped before turning to the last. "Gupta, do you know the way home through the mountains."  
"I do." Gupta answered calmly. "But I have no doubts that you yourself can guide are noble troupe back home."  
"Well then." Arthur said as he got up on Mint. "Let's head back to report our success to king Milo then."  
All nodded in agreement and before soon, another four flyers had landed.  
"B' c'ref'll." Berwald reminded Eirikur as he mounted his flyer, Ikea.  
"I know." Eirikur whined and got up on Puffin.  
"You seem tense today, Eirikur." Gupta pointed out and mounted Kleopatra.  
"I'm not tense." Eirikur defended himself weakly.  
"Whatever, can we just go?" Lovino asked, already seated on the back of his pride and joy, Tomato.  
"Indeed we shall." Arthur agreed and Mint lifted off the ground, soon followed by the others.  
As they neared their home, Arthur began to feel wary.  
"Those clouds look rather strange, don't you think." he asked Gupta.  
"They do." Gupta agreed.  
"Everybody halt!" Arthur ordered and the other three held in their flyers.  
"What the fuck are we stopping for?" Lovino asked, but he didn't need an answer cause he soon saw the big dark cloud spreading across Kulsia. "What the hell is that?"  
"Magic." Arthur said with a dark stare. "Dark Magic."  
"What do we do?" Eirikur asked.  
"We get closer and see if we can get a grip on the damage." Arthur said calmly and soon the five was moving again.  
After a few minutes, they spotted the shape in the distance. It kept moving closer and the five men were shocked to find, Natalia coming right at them, bloody and exhausted.  
"I'm sorry." she gasped. "They came from nowhere, we didn't stand a chance."  
"Natalia." Arthur tried, in an attempt to calm her down. "What happened?"  
Natalia took a few deep breaths and looked Arthur straight in the eyes.  
"We're under attack."

December


	3. December 2

"Marie? Francis? Anyone?" Mei-Mei's voice echoed through the cave.  
"We're alive!" Logan called, still breathing rapidly.  
There were the sound of footsteps and soon Mei-Mei, Yong and Peter came running.  
"Does either of you know what's going on?" Yong asked.  
Everybody shook their heads.  
"Could it be the portal?" Shamus suggested.  
"No." Eduard said sharply. "The portal was not active, it couldn't have caused that. Did any of you three see anything?"  
"It's hard to explain." Mei-Mei admitted. "It was like a vast darkness just spread spread all over. It was... impact."  
Yong nodded in agreement.  
"Like a big black wall." he confirmed.  
A dark look crossed Shamus face.  
"Let's go back to the opening." he decided. "I think I may know what's going on."  
"Back to the scary black thing?" Alfred questioned. "Maybe we can find another way out of the tunnle."  
"If my theory is correct, and by God I hope it's not, then you'll find the same darkness wherever you turn." Shamus said bitterly.  
"So let's not waste any more time then." Heracles suggested. "If Shamus thinks he knows what's going on , it's better than just sitting around unknowingly."  
After a few arguments of, what ifs and buts, the group decided to all head back to the front of the cave, Shamus at the front with the lantern in one hand. When they reached the black velvet that kept them locked in, he put the lantern down before starting to examine it. Gently, carefully, he slided a finger across the surface of the darkness, instantly drawing back.  
"It's magic." he decided finally.  
"Magic?" Logan repeated. "What the evil wizard of the past has returned?"  
"No, this is much worse." Shamus muttered. "But it will ease after a while, to a point where we can walk through it without attracting any harm, with difficulty though. Still, I'm worried about what we might face out there."  
"How do you mean?" Marie asked worriedly.  
"Whoever, or whatever, had the power to create a darkness like this, is assumed to have a great army to follow." Shamus explained. "A great army of dark creatures."

"Big brother." Theresa whined as she clung to her brother. "What's going on."  
"I don't know, kiddo." Sadiq admitted, casting a quick glance at Lukas. "Any ideas?"  
"It's magic, for sure." Lukas said thoughtfully. "But this is worse than anything I have ever experienced. There must be some pretty dark magic to this."  
Lilly shuttered at the thought.  
"I hope big brother is alright."  
"Big brother?" Lukas questioned.  
"My older brother." Lilly said with a small smile. "He's a warriorelf so we don't see each other often."  
"Yeah, I see how you feel." Lukas said, unusually softly. "I have a brother too, though he's a cliffelf."  
"But how come it doesn't come here?" Theresa asked thoughtfully.  
"Yeah." Elizaveta agreed as she stared at the dark clouds.  
"I have honestly no idea." Lukas admitted. "This is dark magic, the only thing that can overpower dark magic like this would be other dark magic, or the magic of pure light, or the magic of the Goddesses of course."  
"Did the Goddesses ever bless this swamp?" Elizaveta asked sarcastically.  
Sadiq huffed.  
"Hardly." he said. "This is the one place in Kulsia that the Goddesses forgot."  
Theresa giggled softly.  
"Big brother, this isn't a time for jokes." she reminded.  
Sadiq patted her head but turned his attention to Eliza and Lukas.  
"So what now? Can we just walk through the darkness?"  
Lukas shook his head.  
"This is the darkest magic imaginable." he told them. "And it's new born, we'll have to wait a couple of hours before the darkness has eased enough to not cause us any harm."  
"So then what?" Lilly asked. "We can't leave the swamp even if we find our way out of it, and we can't stay here forever or we'll probably drown in this."  
"We'll have to find a relatively safe place where we can set camp, and then we try to find or way out." Elizaveta decided. "We all need to rest."  
"Fine." Sadiq agreed. "I can go with that. Which way?"  
"Oh, the "mastertracker" is asking _me _for direction." Elizaveta said sarcastically.  
"Lizzy, this isn't the time for being a bitch." Lilly snapped, earning a cocked eyebrow from all the other four.  
"Well anyway..." Elizaveta said, a slight pink colour painting her cheeks. "Follow me then."  
And thus, the group started to walk through the swamp again. After roughly half an hour walk, Lukas froze, suddenly hearing a light crack.  
"We're not alone." he muttered.  
The others stopped too, and Sadiq pulled Theresa closer to him, as did Elizaveta with Lilly.  
"Who's there?" Sadiq demanded.  
No answer.  
"I've got weapons."  
No answer this time either, but another crack of a broken twig.  
"Don't come closer!" Sadiq yelled.  
The sound of rustling leaves and then whatever was coming their way, stepped out from the bushes with a curious smile.  
"Good day, strangers."

"WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING!?" Ludwig Beilschmidt yelled as he came storming towards his troup of soldiers, shortly followed by Kiku, Vash, Marten and Patrick. "Is anyone hurt?"  
"Everyone is fine." Tino promised. "But everything doesn't seem to be fine back at home. Can you see the smoke."  
Ludwig's eyes narrowed as he looked at the smoke as well as the steadily moving dark clouds.  
"We're at war." he said coldly.  
"Well then we gotta go back there." Juan snapped, and before anyone could stop him, he was running down the path that lead back to the village.  
"Juan! Wait!" Ludwig called after him, but to no avail so he started following him down the path.  
He was quickly followed by the rest of them.  
"Juan! I am giving you a derect order!" Ludwig yelled but Juan wouldn't have it.  
"I've gotta help." he yelled back. "It's my family we're talking about!"  
"Exactly!" Ludwig tried. "They are warriorelves, they can fend for themselves!"  
"I've gotta help putting out the fire."  
"It could be dangerous!" Tino reminded (he was now running side by side with Germany). "You don't even know what you're fighting."  
Tino sprinted a little further forward and grabbed Juan's sleav.  
"I don't _care_." Juan hissed and pulled himself free from Tino. "I was born to fight, so I'm gonna fight, no matter what it may be."  
"But..." Tino tried, making another attempt to grab Juan, though this time missed.  
Meanwhile, Patrick was quickly trying to get a hold of what they _were _up against, and the conclusion he came up with made his stomach squirm. He bit his lower lip and stepped up his speed. They were slowly nearing the border to Kulsia, where the darkness had now stopped moving. They reached the darkness, and Juan kept sprinting at full speed. Patrick gasped and yelled:  
"Juan, don't!"  
But it was too late. The moment Juan reached the darkness, it striked back at him like a knife piercing into his stomach. With a painful yell he flung back towards the others and landed hard on the ground, gasping a few times before his eyes rolled back in his head and he fainted on the ground.

The group of fieldelves watched in horror as two enormous black dragons flew across the sky.  
"What do we do?" Roderich murmured.  
"We have to get out of here." Yao mumbled.  
"How?" Toris asked.  
"I don't know yet. Does anyone have any ideas?"  
Feliciano, Antonio, Roderich, Toris and Bella all shook their heads.  
"Ivan?" Yao asked hopefully but Ivan didn't even seem to hear that they were having a conversation in the first place. He just stood there with the creepy smile on his face.  
"Maybe we can just scare them off with Ivan." Raivis muttered sarcastically, as usual forgetting to think before speaking.  
"Raivis!" Yao gasped, causing Raivis to shrink together, expecting to be badly scolded for his rude behaviour. "That's a great idea, aru!"  
Everyone looked at Yao in surprise (excluded Ivan who still didn't seem to notice their conversation). Had Yao really just said that one of Raivis' ideas were good? Yao noticed the questioning look on the others faces (even Raivis had it) and explained.  
"For whatever reason, the darkness doesn't affect Ivan, which means, if we all stick together we can move from this spot to somewhere were the dragons can't reach us."  
"That's brilliant." Bella exclaimed. "Will Ivan be okay with it though?"  
"He has no choice." Yao huffed before snapping his fingers at Ivan. "Ivan, we have a plan to get us out of here."  
"Niet, I can take them down on my own."  
"Ivan!" Yao scolded. "We are a peaceful people. We do not fight, nor do we kill. Now listen to me, we need to get us somewhere safe. The darkness seems to fear you so we... I need you to lead the way, with the rest of us holding on to you."  
"Will Yao-Yao hold my hand?" Ivan asked with a hopeful smile.  
Yao blushed at the embarrassing questions but nodded in agreement anyway.  
"Then let's go." Ivan said with the brightest of smiles. "Where will we go?"  
"Vee~." Feliciano said, gaining everyone's attention. "I think I saw a cave a little bit up this road."  
"Good, the dragons can't get us in there." Toris said. "Now everybody, hold on to Ivan."  
Everyone did so, Roderich being the last and very unwilling.  
"And now?" Ivan asked.  
"Now..." Yao said, unknowingly squeezing the other's hand. "... we run."  
And they did, as quickly as they could up the road they were walking, and the darkness continue to shield aside where Ivan put his foot. And the dragons got closer. As they almost reached the cave, Raivis suddenly fell, stumbling forward. Antonio acted quickly and instantly picked the smaller up in his arms before they all started running again.  
"They're closing up!" Raivis, who now had a clear view (or as clear as it could be with the darkness surrounding the,) of what was happening behind their backs, said.  
He suddenly shrieked when one of the dragons came in view right above their heads, ready to dive.  
"IT'S DIVING!" he called.  
The small group hurried their steps further and finally lounged themselves into the cave, out of range for the large dragons, happy to find that the cave was not infected by the darkness. They all released a sigh of relief as they got up and dusted themselves off.  
"Oh thank you, Mr Antonio!" Raivis said with wide eyes. "You saved my life!"  
Antonio chuckled and ruffled the little boy's hair.  
"I only did what anyone else would have done."  
"Hey guys." Toris' voice echoed from further down in the cave. "Take a look at this."

"What happened!?" Arthur asked once again.  
They were all securely seated on a cliff in the mountain near our home, high enough to not be affected by the darkness beneath. Since they'd meat up with Bella, six more had joined their small group, one of them being Dimitri, who was currently unconscious due to a large amount of blood-loss.  
"We were patrolling the sky." James said sadly, avoiding eye-contact. "Everyone else was down there, all pretty wary about king Milo suddenly going to visit his brother for an emergency meeting."  
"We all felt that something was coming." Matthew added. "Even the flyers did."  
"And then they just... attacked." Natalia said, eyes glued on the ground. It was easy to tell that she was blaming herself for all of this. "Queen Kimberly put me in charge, so I should at least be able make sure everyone leaves unharmed."  
"You did all you could, Ms. Natalia." Gupta said softly. "What is greatness if we know not how to fall?"  
"Please do continue." Arthur added. "Who attacked."  
"Dragons." Natalia said. "Big, red-eyed, demon, dragons, all ridden by God only knows what kind of evil creatures. Vampires, orchs, greylins, the list goes on."  
"So what happened to him?" Eirikur asked sadly, cocking his head toward where Katasuya, Stephen and Berwald were sitting around Dimitri.  
"Dimitri thought well." Matthew said. "Too well, according to the enemy, so one of the riders jumped off his dragon and attacked him."  
"If Natalia hadn't reacted, he probably wouldn't be here by now."  
"Queen Kimberly will be proud to hear once all this is cleared." Arthur said with a smile. "Berwald, how is he doing?"  
Berwald looked up from the work he was doing of bandaging one of Dimitri's arms.  
"H'll r'c'v'r." he said. "B't Ah m'st ask wh't ex'ctl' att'ced him.  
Stephen sighed deeply and caressed the pale skin of Dimitri's cheek before brushing his hair aside and then looking back at Berwald.  
"A vampire."


	4. December 3

"It's clearing." Shamus announced.  
"Marie, wake up." Francis whispered softly to the sleeping girl.  
Marie yawned as she woke up.  
"Woops, didn't mean to fall asleep." she said tiredly as she rubbed her eyes.  
"Don't worry about it." Francis said with a smile.  
"Is it clear now?" Logan asked.  
"Not quiet." Shamus admitted. "It won't clear until the evil is out of Kulsia. But it's safe to walk through."  
"So what do we do?" Eduard asked.  
"I suggest we get back to the city and see if there's anyone there." Alfred suggested. "Maybe someone needs help."  
"I agree." Heracles said. "We can't be the only one who managed to avoid it, right?"  
"Qui." Francis agreed.  
"It could be dangerous." Shamus commented. "We still don't have any idea what's out there."  
"Exactly." Alfred argued. "One of our friends could be out there right now, begging for help. We can't just ignore the chance of saving someones life."  
"Alfred, if this is about your stupid hero-complex..." Shamus started.  
"It's not a complex, and this has got nothing to do with that anyway!" Alfred hissed. "But we can't just risk letting people die because we are being cowards."  
Shamus send a dark glare in Alfred's direction.  
"You think I'm being a coward now?" he asked. "I guess you think I shouldn't be here at all."  
"I'm not saying you shouldn't be here." Alfred hissed. "I just don't see why you make yourself the leader all of a sudden."  
"_Maybe_, because I'm the only one who knows even a tenth part of what we're facing." Shamus said and stood up to face Alfred (who of course was taller). "You wouldn't last a day without my knowledge."  
"You wouldn't last a day on your own. What with your none existing muscles."  
"Do you want to say that again?" Shamus asked with a challenging glare.  
"Oh, you gonna curse me?" Alfred asked with a fake pout.  
"Oh, you..." Shamus hissed, forming a ball of electricity in his hand.  
"Boys!" Mei-Mei exclaimed. "Stop fighting! If our home is under attack it is definately not the right time to start fighting amongst ourselves. Now, Shamus, turn the magicthing off. What if someone can sense the magic."  
Shamus instantly turned the magic off.  
"I'm sorry I may have overreacted." he said grumpily.  
"Yeah, me too." Alfred muttered.  
"Good, so let's get going right away, I suppose." Shamus said and turned to the opening of the cave, where you could now see the sky as though through a fog.  
"You're agreeing to it?" Logan asked.  
"Alfred's right." Shamus said. "People could need help, and it'd be wrong of us to just sit here and wait. So let's go, provided you all stay cautious."  
There was a mumble of agreement before the group left the cave with Shamus in the lead. It didn't take them long to walk down the beach to the stair that lead up the cliff-wall to the Waterelf city.  
"It's so quiet." Mei-Mei said sadly as she ran her hand across the rocky surface. "Do you remember how we would always play pirates down here as kids?"  
"And I was the hero." Alfred said with a soft chuckle. "Come one, we should get up there now. Hopefully there's someone left."  
"Shamus, do you feel anything?" Eduard asked, as he glanced around the beach, searching, praying for any sign of life.  
Shamus closed his eyes and concentrated. After a couple of minutes, he said:  
"We're not alone." he whispered. "There's someone up there, but I can't tell if it's good or bad from this distance."  
"I guess we'll have to go up there then." Francis said grimly.  
A nod, and then they all started to climb up the stairs. When they finally reached the stairs Shamus made a sudden stop.  
"Wait. I sense darkness." he said.  
"What do we do?" Marie asked. "Do we just go back down?"  
"Do so until I can figure out how many they are." Shamus adviced.  
Just as the group was about to do so, there was a high pitch yelp.  
"Let go of me!" a male voice called furiously.  
"Who is that?" Mei-Mei asked.  
"I said, let go! Who do you think you are!?" the voice came again before there was a pained scream. "Aaah, like totally let go!"

As normal, Elizaveta acted on instinct, and there was soon a shiny arrow pointed at the woman that was staring calmly at them.  
"Whatever brings this paranoid side to you, Elizaveta?" the woman asked.  
"How do you know my name?" Elizaveta demanded.  
"You need my help." the stranger stated simply.  
"Yeah?" Sadiq asked warily.  
"You cannot keep wondering this swamp aimlessly." the woman explained or you'll never be able to save the rest.  
"Save the rest?" Lukas asked, now even more at edge. "What are you talking about, do you know what happened to the others?"  
"Here is not the time for smalltalk." the woman reminded. "Follow me, and we shall talk once we reach a safer place."  
Elizaveta and Sadiq exchanged uncertain glances.  
"And why should we follow you, stranger?" Sadiq asked.  
"It's their only chance." she answered sadly.  
"I trust her." Theresa spoke up.  
"I do too." Lilly agreed. "The three of you really should stop being so paranoid."  
Theresa nodded matter-of-faculty.  
"What else are we supposed to do?" Theresa asked.  
"Fine." Sadiq decided.  
"Don't just make decisions on your own!" Elizaveta yelled at him. "I'm the leader of this group."  
"What the hell makes you think that!?" Sadiq yelled back at her.  
Lukas rolled his eyes as the two started to argue loudly.  
"Maybe we should just vote about." Sadiq said finally.  
"Fine, have it your way." Elizaveta said sourly.  
Both of the elders directed their attention to Theresa and Lilly.  
"So Theresa, who do you think should lead our group and make the important decisions?" Sadiq asked overly sweet.  
"So Lilly, who would you rather have take care of you, the muscle-brain over there, or your own best friend?"  
Theresa and Lilly exchanged questioning glances before nodding in a silent agreement.  
"Lukas should lead us." both said at the same time.  
Lukas, Elizaveta and Sadiq looked at the two younger in surprise.  
"Why would you want me to lead you?"  
"Yeah!" Elizaveta and Sadiq added.  
"Well, if the problem is magic..." Theresa started.  
"Then obviously, our solution is magic as well." Lilly finished.  
"I suppose." Lukas said.  
"Fine." Sadiq muttered.  
"As long as it's not the muscle-brain." Elizaveta said.  
"So what's your decision?" Theresa asked.  
Lukas stayed silent for a while. If he'd been any normal person, he would have had a thoughtful expression by now, so obviously he didn't. Eventually he turned back to the woman, who'd been quietly standing at the side, observing the scene.  
"Well, stranger. Show us the way."  
The stranger nodded and gestured for the five to follow as she began to track through the swamp. After roughly an hour, they suddenly found themselves, facing a large black castle. All inhaled a sharp breath and stared at the construction.  
"Welcome to Wolfcastle."

Juan groaned as he finally came back to reality.  
"Ugh, where am I?" he asked, willing his splitting headache to go away.  
"Juan-san!" Kiku exclaimed upon noticing the awakening of the brunette.  
Juan looked around, finding that everyone was staring straight at him.  
"Hey, what are you staring at?" Juan asked in confusion. "Why am I sleeping on the ground? Where the hell are the others?"  
Ludwig rested a calming hand on Juan's shoulder.  
"We are just outside the border of Kulsia." he explained.  
"You ran into the black veil and passed out." Tino, who was sitting at his right, said.  
"The black veil?" Juan questioned, clearly not understanding what any one was saying. "What "black veil"?"  
"That one." Ludwig said, pointing ahead.  
Juan turned around and saw the vast darkness that awaited on the under side of the border. At the moment, it looked like it was desperately trying to advance forward, but something stopped it. And then he remembered what was going on, and suddenly felt a chill run up his spine. What the hell had that thing done to him? He then also spotted Patrick, sitting only a few feet away from the darkness.  
"Do we know what happened yet?" Juan asked, looking at each face of the group.  
"Patrick says we can't pass the border." Xion said bitterly. "Apparently, there's some kind of dark forces going on."  
"So we're stuck on enemy land for good?" Juan questioned, feeling seriously weird about this entire situation.  
"Not quite." Ludwig answered. "According to Patrick, the intensity of the darkness will ease the longer time passes. However, there is sure to be some far worse enemies on the other side once we can enter."  
"How long?"  
"How do you mean, Juan-san?" Kiku asked.  
"How long until we can enter Kulsia again."  
"Now."  
Juan looked up and realized that Patrick was walking towards them.  
"The darkness is as light as it's ever gonna be before whatever drives it, leaves." Patrick explained.  
"Where to then?" Mathias asked and stood up.  
"I propose we go to the village first." Xion announced. "If we're lucky, someone survived some how, and if nothing else, we might be able to get some provenance there."  
"Ja, I agree." Ludwig said, but turned to Patrick. "You are the one with knowledge of this danger. What do you propose."  
"I don't really think there's one place that's safer than the other." Patrick said absentmindedly. "At least from the village, we know where to go."  
"So it's decided." Ludwig said and offered Juan a hand. "Back to the village."  
"I suppose I should go first then." Patrick said. "Mathias, Ludwig, the two of you are the strongest and tallest. Would you be able to carry Juan until he is ready to walk on his own."  
"Yeah, sure." Mathias said, and Ludwig nodded.  
Ludwig bend down, and Mathias helped Juan so that he was now sitting on the blonde's back.  
"Let's go then." Patrick said before stepping inside the darkness.  
The others soon following suite, with Ludwig and Juan at the back. What they didn't notice though, as the last man entered Kulsia, was Juan's eyes, as they slowly, yet definitely turned black.

Everyone stared at the wonder at the far end of the cave.  
"Wow." Yao breathed. "That's incredible."  
"I can't believe we found it." Bella added.  
"And just imagine." Antonio said slowly. "We may be the first to see it in hundreds of years."  
"Vee..."  
"It's like it's glowing." Raivis whispered, too scared to even speak out loud in fear of breaking the spell.  
"I wonder if it's really one of a kind." Toris wondered aloud.  
"must say." Roderich muttered. "Even I am quite astounded."  
"What is it?"  
And like that, the spell was broken and Yao released an annoyed sigh.  
"This is what we've been searching for all along." he explained.  
"We were looking for something?" Ivan asked in honest surprise.  
"Yes, why else would you come?" Yao exclaimed.  
"I just thought I was going on a nice field-trip with my Yao-Yao."  
Yao facepalmed.  
"Well never mind." he finally said. "I suppose we should pick it."  
Oh. Maybe it's about time I tell you what they're looking at. Do you remember the first chapter in which they were talking about a medicine which they were looking for? Yeah, that's what they found. At shape, it was nothing but a simple flower and had it not been for the glow, one might have mistaken it for just a normal flower, oh well, as normal as one can be, growing in a dark cave. But then there was that glow to it, the one that did make it special. The glow was almost like gold, or maybe it was gold. It was hard to tell at the long distance. Any who. Toris nodded and carefully moved towards the glowing flower. He was actually almost scared, as though the flower would protect itself if he got to close. But it didn't. Of course it didn't, it's a flower, not dinosaur. With great carefulness, he placed the flower in his medicine bag  
"And now what?" he asked as he returned to the rest of the group. "We can't go outside or we'll be eaten."  
Yao nodded in thought.  
"I suppose we will have to find another way out of here. Perhaps there is another way out."  
The others nodded in agreement and started to search the cave for an opening. It was Feliciano that eventually found it, and released a happy squeal. And soon they were all standing in front of the tunnel.  
"I guess we go in then." Bella said softly.  
"I guess so." Yao agreed.  
And so they did, one at a time leaving the cave as well as the possible dragons, behind. They could only pray that the dragons were their worst threats.

There was a pregnant silence among the group as they all awaited the awaking of Vladimir. According to Berwald, they couldn't be quite sure if Vladimir had actually became a vampire from the bite, until he was awake, as teeth could only be extracted in a waking state. Until then, they would all have to wait. Katasuya and Berwald had since long taken care of each person's wounds, and Natalia had finally calmed herself down fully. Everyone was anxious, including the flyers.  
"I can't stand this anymore." Stephen muttered as he stood up and started to pace. "Why isn't he waking up yet?"  
"St'ph'n, c'lm d'wn." Berwald tried but was easily ignored.  
"I thought you said he was going to survive." Stephen kept going. "Then why isn't he awake?"  
"Stephen..." Gupta started.  
"Oh no, don't start that!" Stephen warned. "I am not in the mood for your crazy mentalist talk. I'm not crazy and you can't convince me that I am. I'm just saying that if Berwald had done a better job, Dimitri would have been here right now. But is he? No, becuase Berwald is too much of a coward to... "  
_Slap!_  
Stephen winced as Matthew slapped him with a dark glare.  
"Calm down!" he said, almost sounding like he wasn't giving the other a choice at all. "Dimitri is going to be okay! Berwald is doing all he can! You need to stop overreacting!"  
Everyone stared wide-eyed at Matthew. The boy that was usually the calmest and most quiet one of them all, had just slapped Stephen.  
"I'm sorry." he muttered.  
"No, it's my fault." Stephen muttered. "I guess I overreacted a little. I just got worried it's all."  
"Don't worry." Eirikur said with uncharacteristically much care. "Berwald knows what he's doing."  
Stephen could only nod as he stared into the flames of their fire. Just then, he heard a familar voice rasping behind him.  
"Stephen."


	5. December 4

Before anyone could stop him, Alfred had dashed up the stairs, running with great speed towards the cries that were now slowly fading. The others were quick to follow with Shamus at the front. As he ran, Alfred took notice of the condition of their, once, beautiful city. All was in ruins, fire still eating at it at places, but no sign of life other that the dying screams. He found the source of the scream near what had once been the great fountain in the great hall. He could yet not see who was being tortured but he could clearly see the tormenters, all dressed in black cloaks. He was about to say something, but he was cut short when one of the tormentors was unexpectedly set on fire. The tormentor screamed and flailed but the fire would not be put out. Alfred turned and saw Shamus, highly focused, stretching a tense hand towards the burning tormentor. Shamus offered him a barely noticeable nod, signifying that now would be a good time to take down the others. Marie was first at task, being the most tallented waterbender of her age, using a small waterball to suffocate her opponent. Alfred was next. Not being as magically advanced, he simply picked up a dropped dagger and threw it at the last enemy, hitting him straight in the heart. The enemy fell to the ground and Alfred, Marie and Mei-Mei hurried to the hurt man's side.  
"Shit." Alfred muttered. "It's Felix."  
"Felix." Marie spoke softly. "Can you hear me?"  
Felix was about to answered but was cut off by a fit of coughing and a few droplets of blood left his lips.  
"I-i-it happened s-s-so... *cough* fast..." Felix whezed.  
"Sssh." Alfred urged. "Try not to talk, Felix. We need to get you to safety."  
"S-s-shamus..." Felix got out, earning the attention of the redhead. "I-I-I'm sorry. I tried to save him, I like t-totally did..."  
"We'll discuss it later." Shamus said calmly. "But we have to get you out of here. Is there anyone else around?"  
At this, new tears began to fall from his eyes.  
"I really tried."  
"There's more coming." Shamus suddenly alerted."We need to get back to the cave. For whatever reason, it's safe from the darkness and whatever creatures lives within it."  
Alfred nodded and effortlessly hoisted Felix up before they all ran towards the stairs and down to the beach again, continuing towards what would become their home for the next few days.

Everyone gasped when they stepped inside the hall of the grand castle of Wolfcastle.  
"What the hell is this place?" Sadiq muttered.  
"All in time." their guide said calmly. "All in time. But first, I believe there's someone you would want to see."  
As on que, a very familiar blonde stepped out from one of the nearby rooms.  
"Hey Mon, what's all this noice... Luke, Lizzy, Lilly, Sadiq, Tessie? What are you doing here? Didn't tell you how dangerous the swamp is?"  
"Would you rather have us being caught in the darknes, William?" Lukas asked with a halfhearted glare.  
"No, of course not." the blonde promised with a laugh. "If Monique has planned it so, that's the way it should be."  
"Planned?" Sadiq and Elizaveta questioned.  
"We will dicuss why you're here once the others have arrived." Their guide said, sending a slight glare at her guest. "Till then, my name is Monique, now feel free to reunite with your friends."  
"Friends?" Sadiq asked.  
Once again, as on que, Sadiq was tackled by a grinning brunette.  
"Ricardo!?" Sadiq exclaimed in disbelief. "You're here? We were beginning to think you, Siu and Thaksin had gotten yourself killed."  
A flash of guilt crossed Ricardo's eyes.  
"Follow us to the livingroom." he instructed silently. "We'll explain everything that's happened since we seperated."  
No room for arguments, they all followed Ricardo and William into a well decorated livingroom. The walls were fairly dark and slightly ragged, as were the dark furniture, but they could all tell that this had been a fancy castle at some point. William and Ricardo sat down on one of the couches, gesturing for the others to sit across from them. Theresa, Lilly, Sadiq and Elizaveta sat down, while Lucas settled with standing behind the couch.  
"Now." he said. "Ricardo, we haven't seen you since you, Siu and Thaksin got lost from the group. William, you've been missing for more than a year now. You said you were searching for an adventure far away, how did you end up here?"  
"I was looking for an adventure, it's just..."  
William looked down with a sigh.  
"I should take this from the beginning."

"Nobody move." Patrick warned warily.  
Everyone stopped, listening for any movement or sign of danger in the area.  
"This place is crawling with dark creatures." Patrick whispered. "There's almost no chance for us to find survivors. Our village was attacked before the darknes. Knowing our people, they put up quite a fight."  
"We should go there anyway." Juan said (now being carried by Mathias). "It seems like a good idea."  
"Are you sure?" Ludwig questioned skeptically. "We still no thing of what dangers awaits."  
"We're warriorelves, si?" Juan reminded. "We were born to fight, so fight we will."  
"Juan's right." Gilbert agree. "We're awesome enough to take down a few enemies."  
"We don't even know _what_ these enemies are." Esteban reminded tiredly.  
"Are you saying I'm not awesome?"  
"Yeah, that's exactly what I said." Esteban said with a smirk.  
"Both of you, be quiet." Tino hissed and whacked both of them at the back of the head.  
"Sorry, Tino." both mumbled.  
"You should be." Tino muttered. "Now back to the task at hand. What do we do?"  
"I still say we go back to the village." Juan said. "And let me down, will you? I can walk on my own."  
"I don't think that's such a good idea." Patrick muttered. "We still don't know what affect the darknes had on you."  
"The darknes didn't have _any _affect on me." Juan snapped.  
"Apart from making you a grumpy son of a bitch." Matthias muttered, earning a slight kick in the back.  
"Come on." Hyon sighed. "It's the only place we know really well. If we are attacked, at least, we'll have an advantage being on our own ground."  
"Hai." Kiku agreed. "There will be dangers everywhere."  
"And we still need the supplies." Xion added.  
"Fine." Ludwig sighed. "We'll go back to the village.  
And with that, they carefully started to walk again. When they reached the village, they were meat by the shocking sight of a burned down home.  
"This is aweful." Tino breathed, carefully avoiding to step on the corpse of a fallen warrior. "Our people have fallen."  
"No." Martin said coldly. "Our people has not fallen. Our people will stand back up again, prouder and stronger than ever."  
"TO YOUR WEAPONS!" Patrick yelled, just before a vampire lounged at him. And soon the square of their village was filled with the creatures of the dark. Vampires, werewolfs, orchs, trolls, and some creatures that neither had ever seen before.  
"DON'T LET THEM SURROUND YOU!" Ludwig yelled and retracted his sword from the heart of a werewolf.  
"They're like three times our number!" Esteban muttered as he gave a harsh kick to his human-looking (but probably not quite human) opponent.  
"So we take three each." Hyon called as he thought, back to back with Esteban, against the huge troll infront of him. "Shit this guy is ugly! Xion, a hand please?"  
"Just a sec." Xion called before grabbing the head of the vampire he was fighting, litterarly ripping it off with little to no effort.  
Throwing the head away, he took a big leap over the heads of anyone in the way, kicking a werewolf in the process, before landing behind the troll.  
"That's gross." he commented in disgust. "Let's take him."  
Hyon nodded shortly before both took a big leap and kicked the troll on each side of the head.  
They both landed gracefully on the ground, crouching to avoid the big pole that the troll was now furiously swinging back and forth.  
"Damn, that would have taken out a fulgrown man." Xion muttered.  
"Yeah." Hyon agreed before jumping up in the air, as the troll had now realized where he was. "Crack his jaw?"  
"Yeah, sure." Xion agreed.  
The brothers lounged to the side so the two were on each side of the troll.  
"Let's try again." Xion muttered before jumping back up in the air, aiming a kick to the troll's jaw. He was shortly followed by Hyon who did the same.  
"Not quite." Hyon muttered and dodged the hitthat the troll was throwing at him. "Just one more."  
"I got it." Xion said and took one last jump and a kick to knocked the troll's jaw out.  
"Ew." he said once he got to his feet.  
The troll wobbled back and forth forawhile before he started to fall backwards completly.  
"TIMBER!" Xion called out.  
Kiku easily avoided the dead troll and let it fall on his opponent instead.  
"Arigato." he called with a small wave before lounging at an upcoming "God knows what".  
"Gilbert!" Mathias called as he dodged a hit from a troll. "I bet I can kill more than you."  
"You're on!" Gilbert said with a mocking laugh.  
"Great." Mathias said with a grin stabbing the troll with his axe, only resulting in a minor cut on the troll's thick skin. "Dammit. Why. Won't. You. Die."  
"Aim for the neck!" Tino called. "That's their weekest point."  
"THANKS."  
Mathias followed the advice and aimed for the throat. To his misfortune, the troll registered the action and grabbed the handle of the axe.  
"Shit." Mathias mumbled as he was flung a few meters away.  
The troll hovered over him, massive pole ready to strike. Frantically, Mathias crawled further away until his hand met with something metallic with a sharp edge. Mathias didn't hesitate and grabbed the item (a knife) and threw it straight at the troll, hitting him right at. the throat. It probably wasn't enough to kill, but it was enough to distract the troll so that Mathias could get his axe back. Quickly he grabbed his axe back and lounged it at the trolls throat, almost succeding in beheading the troll. The troll fell dead on the ground, almost hitting Martin in the process.  
"Would you be careful!?" he yelled, beheading the orch he was fighting.  
"Give him a break!" Gilbert said with a laugh and dodged the claws of the werewolf he was fighting for about the twelfth town... no make that thirteen. "Son of a bitch." He hissed when the claws tore at his arm. "Anger managed problems?"  
"Gilbert, stop fooling around." Patrick called in annoyance. "This is serious."  
"Why would you learn the name of the guy you're trying to kill?" Gilber asked with a laugh.  
Patrick simply ignored him and flung a ball of fire at an upcoming vampire.  
"Guys!" Gilbert called. "Two more troll coming up!"  
"I got it!" Tino called, pulling one of his sords out of his tenths kill.  
Effortlessly he lounged at the two trolls that were now heading towards Patrick. Tino leaped into the air, somehow landing with one foot on each of the trolld's shoulder.  
"Moi, Moi." he said darkly before swinging both of his sword and beheading both of the trolls.  
He easily jumped off, as the trolls started to fall, and landed on the ground as though nothing had just happened.  
"That was that." Ludwig said with a relieved sigh as he retraced his sword from the last werewolf.  
And where was Juan during all this? He was calmly standing by the side, watching the rather amusing sight. His small smile faded when his name was called. He looked up to see Ludwog carrying a child in his arms.  
"It's your sister."

Stephen was quick to run to Vladimir's side.  
"Dim." he said softly. "How are you feeling?"  
"I-I'm thirsty." Vladimir rasped out.  
"We need water!" Stephen called.  
"N'." Berwald stated. "W' st'll d'nt kn'w h'w h'rt h' 's int'rn'lly."  
"D-don't want water." he mumbled.  
Berwald placed a firm hand on Stephen's shoulder.  
"Ah s'gg'st y' t'ke a f'w st'ps b'ck."  
Stephen didn't move a muscle. Katasuya gently grabbed the brunette's arm and pulled him away.  
"Just until we know it's safe." she promised.  
Meanwhile, Berwald sat down by Vladimir.  
"Wh't d' y' w'nt to dr'nk?"  
"I don't know." Vladimir admitted.  
Berwald seemed to hesitate for about a second before taking his now and making a small cut in his finger, causing small droplets of blood to seep through.  
"H'w d' y' f'l?" he asked warily.  
As he stared at the blood, Vladimir's eyes went red and he began to shake.  
"'p'n y'r m'th." he said calmly as he place his not bleeding hand on Vladimir's shoulder.  
Vladimir obliged and opened his mouth, revieling two sharp fangs. Berwald's bros furrowed (more than usual) in thought. At last he made up his mind and called Stephen back over.  
"Ah w'nt y' t' m'ke a sm'll c't 'n y'r f'ng'r, th'n l't th' bl'd dr'p int' h's m'th."  
"Why?" Stephen asked warily.  
"He l'ves y'. B' y' g'v'ng h's f'rst bl'd, y' cre'te a b'nd." Berwald explained. "H' w'll cr've y'r bl'd, b't since h' l'ves y', h' won't r'sk k'lling y'. It's th' 'nly w'y t' c'ntr'l h'm."  
Stephen nodded, ignoring his slight blush, and did as Berwald had done earlier and made a small cut in his finger, carefully letting the blood drop into Vladimir's mouth. Vladimir opened his mouth to speak again, but he was interrupted by a loud shriek from a flyer. Everyone froze and turned to where the flyers were resting. They soon saw Lovino running towards them at high speed.  
"Lovino!" Arthur demanded. "What is the meaning of this?"  
"Black dragons." Lovino gasped. "They're coming!"

**So that's the fourth chapter. Just thought I'd explain to you. I know I skipped the Fieldelves (Yao, Ivan, Toris, Antonio a.s.o) but that just because the warriorelves (Ludwig, Juan, Patrick, Gilbert, Tino) got so long**


	6. December 5

The Waterelves - back in the caves at the beach  
"Careful now." Shamus said calmly as Alfred put Felix down on an improvised bed.  
"Does anyone know medicine?" Francis asked.  
No answer.  
"Well, at least, we'll have to wrap his wounds." Heracles pointed out.  
"Here, just take my shirt." Alfred offered without hesitantion.  
The others didn't get a choice in the matter because Alfred had already discharged his shirt and handed it to Heracles.  
"You're gonna get cold." Sophie pointed out.  
"Well, Felix needs it more than I do, so..."  
Heracles released a sigh and nodded before proceeding to rip the white shirt apart.  
"This may hurt a bit." he mumbled. "I learned some basic medicine from my mother when I was young, so as far as I know, we will have to put pressure on the wound so the blood won't rush there."  
Heracles hesitated for a bit before he started to wrap the remaining of the shirts (which were now tied together) around Felix slowly heaving chest. Once he was done he looked back up at the others.  
"We'll need something to fasten it with." he informed.  
"Here, take this." Mei-Mei said and offered Heracles her hairpin.  
Heracles thanked her and fastened the bandage on Felix' chest.  
"Where else does it hurt?" he asked catiously.  
"I-I-I think they broke my ankle." Felix managed to get out.  
Heracles nodded in understanding and moved his attention to the leg. It did look slightly swollen.  
"As far as I know, we need something straight, like a... I don't know, a twig anything that won't break right away."  
"I still got an arrow." Logan informed and dug through his bag. "If we'll just break the tip off it's highly usable."  
"We'll have to do with that." Heracles decided and accepted the arrow.  
Before long, the leg was fixed as best as they could, and all they could do was wait.

Forestelves - Wolfcatle  
"When I left, I really was looking for adventure." William said softly. "I felt suffocated and over all bored with the surrounding. So I decided to leave and find myself my own life that wouldn't be ruled by anyone but myself. I walked for days, just barely taking any break, and eventually I reached the mountains in the west."  
William paused for a moment.  
"I don't think I've ever been through a journey such as the one I experienced when I walked through the mountain." he continued. "It was okay at first, but the further up I got the colder it got, and by the time I had reached the top half of my food was ruined and uneatable. I survived though, and eventually reached the other side. The unexplored. During the first day, there was no sign of civilisation. The only thing in sight was vast land. It scared me, to be honest. At long last though, I reached a pretty rundown town though. No surprise, they were all pretty suspicious of me, since I came from the mountains. I stayed in the little town for a few days before I made up my mind to continue, feeling that this wasn't the place I wanted to spend the rest of my life in. There was another couple of days' walk before I reached the next town, looking even worse than the other. I signed in to a rundown motel for the night but planned to move on the next morning. That's when Monique caught up on me. Apparently she'd been searching for me for a long time, and she asked me for help. With what I cannot tell you. However, she excplained the inportance of it all and I followed her back to Kulsia through magic and I've been staying here ever since, waiting for that day to arrive."  
When William had finished his story, everyone was silent for a long while, trying to figure out what to make out of all this. Eventually, Lukas spoke up.  
"And what about you, Rickardo? Where are the others?"  
Rickardo had his eyes glued to the floor as he spoke.  
"As you all know, Siu, Thaksin and I got lost in the swamp a couple of days ago." he started silently. "Siu was the one to take command and we slowly began to make our way out of this swamp, hoping we could find help to find you guys. Luckily it seems, Monique and William found us first and took us here. Yesterday morning, we were all beginning to worry about you, so Siu and Thaksin, set out to find you. They failed, quite obviously. Despite their promise, they never returned last night, or this morning so William send out a magic bird to scan the area."  
"And?" Theresa asked.  
"Williams magic never fails." Rickardo said sadly. "They were nowhere within the swamp."

The Warriorelves - Tortan, the village of the Warriorelves  
_As the war is ending. _  
_As the sun is breaking through._  
_As the fire's fading down to cole_

_Everything we thought for_  
_Everything that we created_  
_Has already burned down to the ground_

_So has death arived here_  
_Put his hand upon this man_  
_May the great kings welcome our old friend_

The voice of Tino rang clearly across the empty surrounding as a small boat disappeared along the river. Peacefully lying in the boat was the body of a little girl, about eight years old. Her curly brown hair was lying as a halo around her head and to anyone passing by she might have looked like she was just sleeping, had it not been for the red that stained her white dress. Left on the beach, were a group of teenager respectfully watching the boat as it vanished further and further away. To some, it might have seemed strange that one would pass the dead girl to the river, but such was the traditions of the Warriorelves, that when a Warriorelf died, their family would mourn them and honor them by putting them in a boat in the river. In this case, there was only one family member presence, so his friends had decided to act the role of family, with Tino singing the ceremonial song. All, even Gilbert and Mathias who usually wouldn't take anything serious and Xion and Marten who usually didn't let any emotions show, had a look of sadness on their faces. The dead girl's brother however, looked passive as though the hadn't quite realized that the little one was dead.  
"We shouldn't stay here for too long." Vash said quietly. "We don't know what's lurking."  
Ludwig nodded sadly in agreement.  
"Juan, can you walk on your own now?"  
"Si." Juan answered with a semi smile. "I'm fine now."  
Everyone exchanged questioning looks at the almost cheerful tone in Juan's voice. Had he really not grasped the death of his sister at all.  
"Are you sure you're alright, Juan-san?" Kiku asked.  
"Of course." Juan said with a shrug. "Why do you ask."  
"Well, your sister just died." Kiku said hesitantly. "No one would judge you for being sad."  
"I'm not." Juan promised.  
"You're not?" Esteban questioned with a sceptical frown.  
"What can I say." Juan answered nonchalantly. "I guess it was just her time."

The Fieldelves - in the tunnels of the Western mountains  
"It's dark." Ivan commented.  
"No kidding." Raivis muttered, once again forgetting to think before acting.  
Luckily though, it was dark, too dark for Ivan to know where to hit anyway. He didn't want to risk hitting his precious Yao-Yao.  
"Does anyone even know how long we've been walking?" Roderich asked, feeling highly annoyed with having to walk in the darkness with these people.  
"Nope." Antonio said with a sigh. "I've lost all track of time and space for that matter. I don't even know if we're still in Kulsia."  
"Of course we're still in Kulsia." Bella said in an attempt to cheer up the mood. "We can't have walked through the mountains all the way to the Unexplored."  
"I agree with Bella." Yao, presumably walking at the front, said.  
"But that doesn't really help us with anything." Roderich reminded. "We're still trapped in a black cave, with no sense of direction what so ever, with a man who for whatever scares away even dark magic, with black dragons waiting to eat us alive outside."  
"Oh, loosen up Roderich." Feliciano said before giggling. "I think it's funny. Like a game."  
"This is not a game, you..."  
"Please just shut up." Bella whined. "You're giving me a massive headache. We get it, you're afraid of the dark, stupid coward."  
"Bella..." Antonio started but he was interrupted by Toris.  
"Guys, I have an idea."

Cliffelves - still on the cliff  
Arthur ran at top speed after Lovino, shortly followed by Gupta, Natalia and Matthew. Sure enough, they could all see the big black dragons that were heading their way, broad wings carrying them quickly with the wind.  
"We need to get out of here." Arthur muttered before turning to run again, back to the others. "EVERYBODY! GET TO YOUR FLYERS! NOW!"  
Within minutes, everything was packed and done. Vladimir was sitting in front of Stephen on his flyer, Dracula (as Stephen's flyer had died during the fight). The others were riding their own flyers though.  
"We need to get far away!" Arthur yelled as Mint lifted in the air, shortly followed by the others.  
"Where?" Lovino called back. "These fucking dragons are unstoppable."  
"Perhaps not." Arthur explained. "I think they're drawn to the darkness, so if we can get far enough to were the darkness no longer reach we could get away."  
"Yeah, but closest way to the other side of the mountains are over the glacier!" Lovino yelled. "I'm not sure if Dracula can make that!"  
"We don't have any other choice!" Arthur groaned before returning his complete attention to the route ahead of him.  
Occasionally he would turn around only to find that the dragons were closing up on them.  
"FASTER!" he yelled, willing Mint to go just a little bit faster.  
Arther sighed in relief when he saw the glacier ahead. Not much longer now. They kept going, despite the slight protests from the flyers. Most were already worn out from fighting before. And then they were past the border, and sure enough, the dragon couldn't follow to the other side of it. Arthur gave a sigh of relief until he was suddenly alarmed by Riley calling:  
"Arthur! Matthew's not here!"  
Arthur froze and looked back to the clacier, just barely seeing Matthew down there with a dead flyer at his side.  
"Fuck." he muttered and dived down.  
Mint landed smoothly on the ice and Arthur rushed over to Matthew, finding him to be unconscious. The dragon drew closer. At best ability, Arthur lifted Matthew and began to carry him to Mint. The dragon drew closer. As he placed Matthew on Mint, the boy awoke and looked at him wideeyed.  
"Where's Maple."  
"You need to get out of here." Arthur muttered as he made sure that Matthew was sitting securely on the flyer.  
The dragon was almost there.  
"Arthur, get on." Matthew said.  
Arthur took a quick glance behind him.  
"There's no time." he muttered. "GO!"  
Not leaving any room for arguments, Arthur gave Mint a slight smack to urge the flyer forward, who reluctantly followed orders and lifted off the ground.  
The dragon arrived.


	7. December 6

So this is where the stories begin to take a turn, and I will no longer be doing the whole "One elfkind at the time" thing, seeing as people are slowly getting separated by now. So, for sixth December, I thought it was time to take a look on someone from the first chapter. Do you remember them? Well anyway, here he is.

Prince Tiny - the fields of Selton, the city of the Fieldelves  
Tiny sighed sadly as he walked through the ashes of the place he was born in. Most of the houses were completely burned down by now and he began to feel guilt build up as he thought of how he'd rejected this place completely before. Not only this place, but his family as well. He couldn't believe that his last conversation with his uncle before bringing the bad news, were nothing but a harsh argument. He didn't regret leaving this place and starting his own life, but he did regret neglecting it all completely. He found a slight relief though, in knowing that none of his family members had died. To most, he was known as Death, you see, the messenger of death. He wasn't the god of death, not by far. You could usually see him as the servant of Good and Evil, the two gods of death. Had any of his family members died, he would have been there to lead their soul right. He had collected many souls, but to his relief he found no one that he knew.  
"Why do you look sad, sir?" a small girl's voice asked.  
This was the girl he'd found floating in the river... or her ghost.  
"This use to be my home." Tiny said sadly and crumbled a piece of burned wood between his fingertips. "Long ago, before I left."  
"Why did you leave?" the little girl asked. "Didn't you like the people here? Big brother always said that Fieldelves were the kindest of people."  
Tiny released a small laugh.  
"They are, most of them. And I loved them deeply." he explained. "But you see, kid, I just didn't belong here. I needed to find my own destiny."  
"That's what big brother said too when he left to go fight the orchs."  
"Oh, I'm sorry kid, did he not come back?"  
"My name is not "kid"." the girl reminded quietly. "It's Isabella."  
"Isabella, you say?" Tiny said with a small smile. "So tell me, Isabella. Why do you still walk upon this earth? Wouldn't you rather be dead in peace?"  
Isabella shook her head, making her curls fall in her face.  
"No, senior." she said. "I can't leave until big brother keeps his promise."  
"Your brother left you a promise?" Tiny asked curiously. He was usually not a big fan of kids but this one, he could make an exception for.  
"Si, mi hermano promised me he'd be back to celebrate my birthday."  
"And he has not returned yet?" Tiny asked, ruffling the girls hair. One of the pro's of being the messenger of death was that he could effortlessly touch both ghosts and other spirits.  
"No. He wasn't in the village when the darkness came."  
"So he survived the darkness?" Tiny asked thoughtfully. "Maybe..."  
"Maybe what?" Isabella asked in confusion.  
"Nothing." Tiny promised hastily. It wasn't worth throwing assumptions out in the open.  
"Now tell me about your brother." he said and sat down on the ground.  
Isabella sat down too, only flying a few inches above the ground.  
"My big brother is the best." she said happily. "He's always laughing and teaching me how to fight. And last year for my birthday, he made me this really pretty doll, and he played with me all the time."  
"Yeah." Tiny said absentmindedly. "Sounds like the perfect big bro."  
"Were you like that too?" Isabella asked in pure innocent curiosity.  
Tiny released a sad smile.  
"I can't say I was, I'm afraid."  
Isabella looked sad at the black-haired man that was sitting next to her.  
"Why not?"  
Tiny had to take a moment to think about that. After a while he pulled his knees up against his chest and rested his head on them as he gazed out on the burned fields.  
"I guess I just got too caught up in my own problems that I forgot to be a good big brother." he said finally. "Or maybe I was just trying to do everything the exact opposite of what my uncle did."  
"Didn't you like your uncle?" Isabella asked in surprise.  
"My uncle was great." Tiny said."Always bringing a smile to the place, always kind and gentle towards anyone he meat, providing the didn't hurt his people, and always talking to that goat."  
"Goat?" Isabella questioned.  
"Long story." Tiny said with a laugh. "I'll tell you sometimes. Anyway, he was so damn... flawless in my eyes, and I guess that's what I couldn't stand, the fact that I would be one day the king, and thereby constantly compared to him, cause there was no way I could ever do what he did. So I decided, better make them all hate me so they don't get disappointed when they see how much less I am than my uncle."  
"That doesn't sound like a good way to go." Isabella said thoughtfully.  
"Tell me about it." Tiny chuckled. "But by the time I realized that my family, the people, my uncle respected me just as I was, and that I didn't need to be perfect, it was too late. I'd already became my own lies and I didn't actually want the throne anymore."  
Isabella seemed to ponder this for a while.  
"But why would you fight with your uncle?"  
"I don't remember." Tiny admitted. "As the time passed, I grew more and more rebellious and started to refuse the ways of our people. I guess we both just... snapped."  
"I'm sure it's not too late to apologize." Isabella said with happy smile.  
The tiny gesture made Tiny unexpectedly laugh out loud before even more unexpectedly quezing the little girl.  
"Oh you're so adorable." he said between laughs.  
When he pulled back, he still had big smile on his pale face. Isabella didn't understand why he was smiling, or why he had laughed, but she easily decided that she liked it.  
"You know, kid." Tiny said and ruffled the smaller one's hair again. "If you weren't technically dead, I would adopt you."  
Isabella instantly smiled at this.  
"You should laugh often, Mr Death."  
"Please." Tiny said with a warm smile. "You can call me Tiny."  
Isabella released a giggle at the name.  
"You're name is Tiny." she giggled.  
Before long, the giggle had turned to laughter and the small girl was laughing so hard she was now lying in the air, one hand still trying cover her mouth to stop the laughter.  
"I should let you meet one of my bosses." Tiny commented once the girl was finally done laughing at his rather ridiculous name.  
"Why?" Isabella asked, titling her head.  
"We're talking about Sir. Evil himself." Tiny explained. "He'd be so annoyed with you. Man that would be an hilarious sight."  
"You're a strange person." Isabella pointed out bluntly.  
"Thank you." Tiny only said and got up on his feet, dusting his coat of slightly. "Now, how about we try to find your brother?"  
Isabella nodded happily and hugged Tiny.  
"Are you sure that's okay?" she asked. "Don't you have work to do?"  
"I will know when someone dies." Tiny said absentmindedly before smiling warmly at the child, stretching his open hand to her. "Plus, I am also in charge of making sure that no lost soul is left behind. Such as yours."  
Isabella nodded and accepted the hand with a smile.

A/N: Yeah, totally filler chapter.


End file.
